EF1 tornado, Kingsville to Ricardo, Texas, May 31, 2016

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF1

Date

May 31, 2016

Touchdown

6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC)

Lifted

6:35 PM CDT (23:35 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.4 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2.5 million

County

Kleberg County

Touchdown point

27.492, -97.851

Lift-off point

27.497, -97.865

Record number

1605311730-01

22 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CRP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 114 mph.

• Sign blown down from nearby shopping center
• Vehicles windows broken from flying debris
• vehicle damaged from flying debris
• about a dozen large utility poles blown over or snapped

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

An upper level disturbance moving across South Texas, combined with a very moist and unstable atmosphere, produced strong to severe thunderstorms across South Texas on May 31st. The strongest storms crossed Kleberg County and produced 3 tornadoes, very strong winds, large hail, and torrential rainfall.

An EF-1 tornado touched down at the intersection of Brahma Boulevard and East General Cavazos Boulevard. It traveled northwest crossing Business Highway 77 near Otis Street before lifting. Windows were broken and shingles were blown off the roof of an apartment complex. Vehicle windows were smashed. A portion of a roof was blown off of a home. Numerous large trees and power poles were snapped. Estimated peak wind speed was 110 mph.

An EF-1 tornado touched down near Farm to Market Road 1717 and traveled west across Highway 77 into Dick Kleberg Park. Numerous large trees and utility poles were snapped. Bleachers at the park were tossed 300 yards. A portion of the roof from a metal building was blown off. Estimated peak wind speed was 110 mph.

An EF-0 tornado touched down in an open field southwest of Ricardo. The tornado was captured in a photo by a trained spotter. No visible damage was observed by NWS storm survey team.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

11 minutes of warning. NWS CRP issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:19 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Kingsville Nas (NQI), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Corpus Christi radar (KCRP), 47 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:27 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.